[lupusreal]

It could easily be the other way around; new technology leading to new wars as nations feel empowered by their new toys to act on their ambitions. The first world war occurred shortly after the introduction of smokeless powder and machine guns. These inventions were certainly funded by some military spending and perhaps even prompted by earlier wars, but in large part they were technologies who's time had come; precision manufacturing and chemical technology had only made these things possible shortly before they were invented.

The development of "smart bombs" like the Walleye television bomb happened about as soon as they were technologically feasible; the idea for a fire-and-forget television bomb came from an engineer who was playing around with a new model of commercial TV camera. Emboldened by these new weapons, American politicians started wars which previously they might have considered too politically costly if they had to be fought using older methods. Desert Storm particularly.

[inglor_cz]

The Russo-Ukrainian war saw a huge explosion of drone warfare, but I am mostly certain that it didn't happen due to military drones coming of age.

[lupusreal]

Those drones weren't developed because of the war. But the existence of those drones (among other newish technologies) might plausibly have something to do with Ukraine believing they can successfully resist.

[inglor_cz]

If you follow the war closely, the development of the drones during the war is absolutely breathtaking.

Originally, Ukraine had a few Bayraktars (nowadays hopelessly obsolete) and some observation drones. They couldn't even use drones against armor. The original losses of Russian armor in 2022 were mostly due to Javelins, NLAWs and similar specialized weapons.

Nowadays, the Ukrainians deploy jet-powered Palyanitsya drones to the deep rear of the enemy and regularly destroy heavy equipment with explosive drones.